Is it possible that our besetting sins beset us because we prefer to lop their tops off to getting to the root of the problem? I have been wondering of late why we are so prone, in the midst of complicated circumstances, to hand out white hats to our side and black hats to the other. With respect to Israel and Gaza we have both sides insisting that they are innocent of wrongdoing, and everything is the fault of the other. Now I’m not one to assume that any time there is disagreement that both sides must be equally at fault. That said, there’s only been one time in all history where there was conflict between sinners and the One without sin. In that conflict the One without sin redeemed we sinners who rest in Him.
It is not my intent to settle the relative guilt of the warring parties in the middle east. Rather I want to suggest that when it comes to our response to the conflict the problem is less who is wrong, more that we are so quick to respond emotionally without knowing all the facts. If I respond to this conflict out of emotion, chances are good that I have done the same with respect to Russia and Ukraine, with the grumbling congregants and the pastor, between my political party and the opposing political party, between the one gossiping to you and the one being gossiped about. The problem may be violence in the middle east, but my problem is being led by my emotions.
There is something profoundly satisfying about moral umbrage. We put on our prophet’s mantle and thunder against those other evil people. Add to that the postmodern victim hunger, that as we identify with those whom we’ve given the white hates we position ourselves as fellow victims of those to whom we’ve given the black hats. We get to wallow in our own self-perceived innocence, thinking ourselves morally clean because we’ve never crammed two million people into an open air prison, or we’ve never parasailed into a neighboring country to kill old women and take children hostage.
This is not moral equivalence however. I’m quite confident that on the day of judgment Hamas and Israel will not get equal scores. That said, He is the only one we should trust to give the right score. Neither am I arguing that in the face of evil we do nothing. I am instead suggesting that what we do a. is in submission to God’s Word and b. is done while undergirded with a sure confidence that in the end the Judge of all the earth will do rightly. I can be sad for all victims of the violence, disappointed in all those who cause the violence without letting my emotions get away from me and without arrogantly assuming that I know the precise measure of everyone else’s guilt.
May God give us the wisdom to know how to act, and the humility to know that in the middle east, in eastern Europe, in our troubled local church, in our circle of friends, the problem is we’re all sinners. May He likewise give us the faith to know He is washing us, bringing all things under subjection and reigns absolutely and unchangeably.